The Critique

  Dir: Sharan Sharma Starring: Jhanvi Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Angad Bedi Dur : 1 hr 52 mins Genre: Biography Rating : 6.5/10 The film aims at depicting the tough life of India’s first lady Air Force pilot: Gunjan Saxena. Gunjan served in the Kargil War of 1999. She came from a family that had patriotic blood as her father was an Army officer. Her brother also subsequently joined the army. Gunjan, uncharacteristic of most Indian girls, dreamt of becoming a pilot from her childhood. She was very intelligent and wanted with all her being to fly a plane and rule the skies. The film flippantly portrays how a young Gunjan prepares herself to achieve her goal by wearing goggles all the time in order to protect her eyes. The film could have done without such silliness but it is tolerable. Besides the young actress playing young Gunjan is adorable. The film slightly exaggerates things in order to dramatize the story and while this adds to the drama it does not shed kind light o...

  Dir: Anu Menon Starring: Vidya Balan, Sanya Malhotra Dur : 2 hrs 7 mins Genre: Biography Rating : 9/10 I don’t know if you had heard about Shakuntala Devi. She is a national treasure. She was known as the ‘human computer’ and could calculate faster than the computer of those days! She travelled the world displaying her talent and in the bargain earned great fame and respect not only for herself but for the nation. She died in 2013. Her real story differs quite a bit from the film story but the essentials are depicted.   Shakuntala came from very humble beginnings but was blessed with prodigious math skill. Even without formal training she was able to compute in her head. Once discovered, her father nurtured her skill and used it to add to the family income by taking her to perform at shows and other events. To cut a long story short, Shakuntala goes on to become world-famous and even held a Guinneas World Record for mental arithmetic after successfully calculating ...

Created:  The Duffer Brothers Starring:  Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono, Matthew Modine, Noah Schnapp and Joe Keery, Sadie Sink, Dacre Montgomery, Sean Astin and Paul Reiser. Dur:  Each episode is about 50 mins. There are 8 episodes in this series. The finale is just over an hour. Genre:  Thriller PG:  A few kisses and foul language. It's been a year since Season 2 hit the screens and thrilled audiences everywhere. Season 3 comes back with what you might expect in a storyline that grows with its characters: a more mature story that grows with the characters. It's a bit unnerving to see the innocent kids of the first two season suddenly turn into beautiful teens with all the problems that ordinary teens have. Somehow you would want them to remain the innocent young ones that they were but that is not how life goes. Just like in Harry Potter you have to get...

Dir: Nitesh Tiwari Starring: Sushant Singh Rajput, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Sharma, Prateik Babbar, Tahir Bhasin, Naveen Polishetty, Tushar Pandey and Saharsh Shukla Dur : 2 hrs 23 mins Genre: Drama Rating : 6/10 PG: Foul language, drinking, smoking.   Chhichhore was the last film of Sushant released during his lifetime. Watching the film, I felt that he somehow missed the plot. The crux of the film is about not losing hope despite adversity and realizing that life is far more valuable than anything you can achieve. It’s ironic to me how a person who stars in a film that revolves around the theme of suicide can end up falling into the trap himself. I cannot bring myself to accept how someone who makes a powerful film to deter youngsters from giving up on life when faced with failure could end his own life. Anyway, coming back to the film. It is a lovely coming-of-age story that centres around the character of Aniruddh (Anni) played by Sushant who retells the story o...

Dir: Guy Ritchie Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant Dur : 1 hr 53 mins Genre: Drama (In my opinion) but IMDB calls it an Action-Comedy! Rating : 2/10 PG: Lots of foul language, smoking in nearly every scene, drugs, alcohol, violence and even an interrupted rape scene in which nothing explicit is shown. The Gentlemen opened up to great reception. I remember seeing it pop up every time I looked for latest movies. It looked good; it sounded good; its trailer was pretty good but its end product was a total let down. I don’t know where to start with trying to say what a big discouragement this film was. So I’ll start at the beginning. The film opens with an end scene that directly throws us into the thick of the plot. I confess that the opening scene kind of built up the drama that I hoped would follow. The opening scene got my attention! What followed only whetted my appetite fu...

Creator: Jason George Starring: Jan Bijvoet, Nabil Mallat, Pauline Etienne, Laurent Capelluto, Stefano Cassetti, Vincent Londez, Regnia Bikkinina, Alba Bellugi, Babetida Sadjo, Mehmet Kurtulus and Ksawery Szlenkier Duration: One Season. Six episodes. Each about 40 mins. Into the Night  is Netflix's first original Belgian series. It kept popping up in the recommendations and its brevity attracted my attention. The series is shot mostly in French with occasional dialogues in Russian, Dutch and English. I tried changing the language setting to English but preferred to watch it in the original. The subtitles are more than enough to follow the dialogues. I realized that watching in the original language makes a world of difference for it brings one closer to the characters in a way that a dubbed voice cannot.  I thoroughly enjoyed the series. Despite its simple premise, the series which is based on a novel called The Old Axaloti  by Jacek Dukaj unfolds dramatical...

Money Heist (Spanish original: La Casa de Papel) [2017] Created: Alex Pina Starring: Ursula Corbero, Alvaro Morte, Itziar Ituno, Pedro Alonso, Paco Tous, Alba Flores, Miguel Herran, Jaime Lorente, Esther Acebo, Darko Peric and Enrique Arce. Dur: The first season is broken into 2 parts. The first part has 9 episodes while the second part has 8 episodes. Each episode is about 45-55 mins. For me, Netflix has been a name until recently. I have watched some of Netflix's shows but not on Netflix directly. The present lockdown offered me an opportunity to get in touch with Netflix firsthand. Thanks to my sister's subscription and the availability of a streaming device I finally exposed myself to the addictive world of Netflix. Thus far, my experience has been very rewarding and satisfying. The only problem I face is that Netflix does not allow you to watch at higher speeds. While this appears to have a good reason, a person like me who lives on a time-constrained schedule and ...

Chetan Bhagat , One Indian Girl , New Delhi: Rupa Publications 2016, pp. 272, Rs. 176. Chetan Bhagat has made a name for himself on the Indian literary scene with his novels. Some of them have even succeeded in feeding famished Bollywood with adventures that provided a refreshing change from mainstream storylines. Bollywood's chronic 'borrow and steal' policy has ensured that Chetan becomes a household name in India. Despite the poor literacy of our country, Chetan's books have become bestsellers read by millions. While all this is nice and heart-warming, it sadly but naturally leads to the point where whatever Chetan writes sells immaterial of quality. It is my opinion that One Indian Girl  suffers from this exact bias. I am a fan of Chetan Bhagat. His initial novels were thrilling, fresh and interesting. But once fame caught up, I detected a downward slip in quality and content. His last couple of novels have been rather poor. Revolution 2020  marked the beginnin...

Confession #1: Maps is one my favourite Maroon 5 songs. Confession #2: I am not a big fan of covers. I enjoy the original tracks. But every once in a while you come across a cover that is better than the original. This is something very interesting and great about music - there are so many different ways of doing it. Take, for instance, a song; a song can be sung in different styles or the music could make a difference; adding or subtracting an instrument can bring out a different sound and thus give the song a whole new vibe. This is what I love about music. Caleb and Kelsey have made a number of covers. I haven't heard them all. Frankly, I haven't heard 98% of them! I chanced upon this cover they made on the song Maps . My first impression was that it was well done. The voices blended beautifully. The video opened up well but then just got boring. Firstly, because it was repetitive and secondly because it lacked direction and creativity. What captured my attention, h...